Tulku Thondup Rinpoche - Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet

ABOUT THE BOOK

Masters of Meditation and Miracles presents colorful biographies of thirty-five realized teachers whose lives were full of peace, enlightenment, and amazing miracles. They flourished in Tibet, the Roof of the World, in its golden days. These teachers belong to the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, a cycle of mystical teachings revealed by the great scholar and adept Jigme Lingpa.

From the first master, Garap Dorje, to the present, each spiritual personality has his or her own distinctive role to play in this great lineage. In retelling their stories in his own words, the author has sought to bring out their inner feelings as well as their external activities: how they faced and healed physical pain, how they dealt with emotional turmoil, how they overcame spiritual or meditative illusions, and most important, what experiences they had when they awakened their own inner Buddha Mind and Buddha qualities. These biographies not only provide great sources of teachings on meditation, but will also kindle a spiritual flame in the hearts of readers.

TULKU THONDUP RINPOCHE was born in East Tibet and was recognized to be a tulku at age five. He studied at Tibets famed Dodrupchen Monastery, settling in India in 1958 and teaching for many years in its universities. He came to the United States in 1980 as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. For the past three decades he has lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he writes, translates, and teaches under the auspices of the Buddhayana Foundation. His numerous books include The Healing Power of Mind, which has now been published in eighteen languages, and Boundless Healing, which has been published in eleven languages.

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Masters of Meditation and Miracles

L IVES OF THE G REAT B UDDHIST M ASTERS OF I NDIA AND T IBET

TULKU THONDUP

Edited by Harold Talbott

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2014

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS, INC.

HORTICULTURAL HALL

300 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02115

WWW.SHAMBHALA.COM

1996 BY TULKU THONDUP

BUDDHAYANA SERIES: VI

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR BY ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGS THE HARDCOVER EDITION OF THIS BOOK AS FOLLOWS:

THONDUP, TULKU.

MASTERS OF MEDITATION AND MIRACLES:

LIVES OF THE GREAT BUDDHIST MASTERS OF INDIA AND TIBET / TULKU THONDUP: EDITED BY HAROLD TALBOTT.

1ST ED. P. CM.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2482-9

ISBN 978-1-57062-113-0 (ALK. PAPER)

ISBN 978-1-57062-509-1 (PBK.)

1. RI-MA-PA LAMASCHINATIBETBIOGRAPHY.

2. MEDITATIONRI-MA-PA (SECT)

I. TALBOTT, HAROLD. II. TITLE.

BQ7662.A23T48 1995 95-15854

294.3923092DC20 [B] CIP

Contents

M Y gratitude is due to Harold Talbott for his wisdom and patience in editing this book with great care and appreciation; Michael Baldwin for his never ceasing support and guidance of my Dharma projects for over one and a half decades; Lydia Segal for inspiring me to put this book together and checking many parts of the book; the patrons of Buddhayana, under whose sponsorship I have been able to spend the days of my life writing and translating the precious Buddhist teachings since 1975; David Dvore for computering assistance; Jonathan and Joan Miller for taking care of my health; the private Library of Kyabje Dodrupchen Rinpoche at the Mahasiddha Nyingmapa Temple, Hawley, Massachusetts, and the Lehman Library at Columbia University, New York City, for their precious resources; Victor and Ruby Lam for allowing me to use their easeful apartment.

I am grateful to Steven Goodman for his many insightful contributions and for preparing the index. I am also thankful to Zenkar Thupten Nyima Rinpoche, Khenpo Chyag, Gelong Konchog Tendzin, Ani Ngawang Chdron, Ani Lodr Palmo, and many others who provided much valuable information.

I am grateful to master Samuel Bercholz and the staff of Shambhala Publications for providing the perfect channel for the lives of the Masters to reach the readers, to Larry Mermelstein for refining the book with his great editorial mastery, to Kendra Crossen for infusing the book with her literary insight, and to Brian Boland for designing the book with artistic talent.

I HAVE capitalized the root letters (Ming gZhi) of each word in the transliterated Tibetan in order to ensure a correct and easy reading. For the phonetic transcription of Tibetan, I mainly followed the Nland Translation Committee guidelines provided by Larry Mermelstein.

Throughout the book I have added words in parentheses to make the meaning of the quoted texts clear or to provide their Sanskrit, Tibetan, or English equivalents. I have also provided a number of alternative translations or synonyms in square brackets.

In the bibliography, f stands for folio, the Tibetan style of pagination; and p for page according to the Western style.

In the notes, the titles of texts quoted are indicated by abbreviations, such as BC for sNying Thig Gi brGyud Debs Byin rLabs Char rGyun discovered by Jigme Lingpa . The full titles are alphabetically listed in Works Cited at the end of this book. When a text in the Tibetan pagination style is quoted, the letters signifying the title are followed by the folio number, which is followed by the letter a or b to designate the front or back side of the folio. This is then followed by the line number. For example, BC 1a/a. Page and line numbers without the letter a or b indicate the Western style of pagination.

M asters of Meditation and Miracles is a collection of biographies of realized teachers whose lives were full of peace, enlightenment, and amazing miracles. They flourished in Tibet, the Roof of the World, in its golden days. These teachers belong to the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Longchen Nyingthig (the heart-essence of infinite expanse, or the ultimate truth of the universal openness) is a cycle of mystical teachings that represent the innermost meditation of Dzogpa Chenpo, revealed by the great scholar and adept Jigme Lingpa (17301798). Jigme Lingpa discovered them as a mind ter (or mind treasure), teachings that were discovered from the enlightened nature of the mind. To Jigme Lingpa and then from him to the present, the transmission of Longchen Nyingthig was passed through the lineage of many enlightened masters, the most outstanding being the ones whose lives are presented in this book.

In the past, when I read the biographies that I have epitomized here, I saw them as most inspiring and amazing lives. But this time, as I was retelling them in my own words with my own feelings, I myself frequently underwent the experiences of pain, hardship, or excitement as well as peace, joy, light, or openness that the masters were going through. So the lives were no longer just stories to read or objects out there to think about. They were glimpses of the inner light of the masters, which is the true nature of the enlightened lives. In that true nature, all the different phases and expressions of lives are in communion, like rivers flowing into the ocean, a single body of water. If these biographies are read as stories with intellectual and emotional perceptions, the best possible benefit that could come is inspiration. If the lives are read in order to feel and unite with the experiences of the masters, the stories will certainly arouse spiritual realization, love, peace, openness, light, and healing in the readers heart.